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The story
On the October 4 broadcast of TBS’s Sunday Theater drama “VIVANT” Season 2, Episode 19, voice actor Wakamoto Norio made a surprise appearance, sending “Anago-san” (his famous Sazae-san character) trending on social media. The story, reported by zakzak.co.jp, quickly spread to the live-discussion crowd on 5ch, where the thread buzzed with surprise (“more and more star voice actors keep joining — it’s starting to feel like a dubbed movie”) and complaints that his distinctive delivery turns serious scenes into comedy skits. On the other hand, some took it positively, saying “full-on Wakamoto mode, I straight up laughed” — reactions to the same scene were sharply divided.
2026.10/4 22:54
Star voice actors keep piling in! The unexpected chaos caused by a weighty “mastermind voice”
An unexpected surprise that erupted during the October 4 broadcast of TBS’s Sunday Theater drama “VIVANT” Season 2, Episode 19, took social media by storm. It was the appearance of legendary voice actor Wakamoto Norio.
Source: zakzak.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Once AI Hayato started feeling like some cheesy Showa-era sentai hero show, I lost it right from this very first episode.
The great actor Wakamoto Noriaki already died.
This Wakamoto Norio's a fake.
Anago-san's wife is a Hanazawa too, isn't she.
Cutie-chaaaan
Seriously?! lol
It was already a comedy skit back in his Detective Conan days.
W-wait, is that the Prison Titan from Demon Slayer?! (a joke mashing up Demon Slayer and Attack on Titan)
That's a pretty low bar, huh.
Simultaneous interpretation
This keeps getting worse.
Should've just stopped after part one.
When's Nozawa Masako (Goku's voice actress) gonna join in?
Wakamoto's voice showing up cracked me up
He's gotta be the final boss, right?
He'll show up in person dressed as Jeff from Oishinbo 🙄
If so, let's throw in Ikeda Shuichi (Char's voice) and Ginga Banjou too.
As a drama it's terrible, but that foreign actor and Wakamoto are such a mismatch, with Wakamoto going full-on in his signature style.
No matter what non-human role it is, the second that voice speaks, it just turns into 'Wakamoto.'
We're all just conditioned at this point.
Yamaoka: 'Call Okahoshi!!' 🙄
Use it in a Japanese drama and there's zero realism or tension.
It almost feels like a joke.
They didn't need to stick with voice actors this time either — someone like Yoshida Kotaro would've been fine.
He used to be normal, you know.
Chiba Shigeru and the Gendo guy (Tanaka Hideyuki, Evangelion's Gendo) are kind of the same, though.
The so-called seiyuu-otaku probably don't even care about this generation of actors — they're old folks.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
“VIVANT” is a hard-edged TBS Sunday Theater ensemble drama starring Eguchi Yosuke, revolving around public security, the Self-Defense Forces, and a terrorist organization. In Season 2, the show has leaned again into the “surprise cameo by a star voice actor” device that generated buzz in previous installments, and Wakamoto Norio’s appearance has pushed that further. What split the thread was whether a voice actor’s signature “raw voice” — an asset in anime or foreign-film dubbing where distinctive delivery is a strength — instead feels out of place in a live-action Japanese drama built around realism. Comments like #70, arguing that “it’s a vocal style that only works because it’s anime or dubbed foreign films, and using it in a Japanese drama kills the tension,” sat alongside more favorable takes like #59’s “it’s fun, I can just laugh along with the vibe” — showing a gap between the production’s intent and how viewers actually received it. It’s also worth noting that the thread itself never explains exactly why “Anago-san” became a trending term — that detail comes from posters relaying secondhand reports of social media reactions.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Buruaaaa] Sunday Theater’s “VIVANT” sends “Anago-san” trending with Wakamoto Norio’s appearance — why the serious drama fell apart [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★]“.
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